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How Taxumo is Reinventing the Process of Taxes, One SME at a Time

Taxumo is an end-to-end online assistance platform dedicated to helping SMEs file, track, and remember their tax requirements. By providing this unique service, they are able to shorten the time it takes for SME owners to process taxes, from a week of preparation and hours of waiting in line, to a matter of minutes in front of their computers or mobile devices.

It all began with their Chief Operating Officer Ginger Arboleda’s pain point, which her husband and soon -to-beCEO of Taxumo EJ tried to solve. He saw that Ginger, founder of local business Manila Workshops, would stress about her taxes for one whole week every month, and upon studying the process he discovered that it could be automated. From creating a service just for her, they worked on the idea and wanted to bring the same benefits to other SMEs. Thus, not only was Ginger able to focus more on growing her business and the passion behind her work, they were also able to extend the same convenience and ease she had benefitted from to other entrepreneurs in their circle - by launching Taxumo.

“[Doing taxes] is not a problem for corporations, who can hire a team of accountants to do it for them. But if you’re an SME, your own time will be eaten by the process,” EJ shares. They understand that for a business owner, time is an incredibly valuable thing, and a lot of it may be wasted throughout the preparation and processing of taxes. Their belief is that SMEs can grow by focusing on their ‘why’ - the purpose behind their business - rather than being stuck on time-consuming operations and procedures.

Founded in 2016, Taxumo recently got the go signal from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and is now offering services to help businesses track income and expenses, autofill tax paperwork, and even pay their dues online. Their user-friendly and transparent site allows users to easily understand the tax process, whether they’re seasoned CEOs or first-time business owners. At the same time, the team is hard at work on expanding the services and reach of the business, being a very young company.

The main goal of Taxumo is to empower SMEs and make their lives and business operations easier. EJ shares, “We believe that by helping SMEs, we’re creating real, inclusive growth. [...] They’re the ones who employ 70% of our population. By helping this ecosystem grow and thrive, that’s how we help those employed to grow themselves also.”

There’s a side effect to this mission - by empowering SMEs, they’re also enabling entrepreneurs to be better taxpayers.

“The only thing stopping a lot of the people we talk to from paying taxes is the hassle,” EJ says, adding that, “People are generally willing [to pay]. They see it as something they have to do, and as part of having a real, growing business.”

Taxumo removes the hassle for these SME owners and accountants, and allows all clients using their system to file regularly. The site is user-friendly, offers relevant information and answers to FAQs, computes people’s taxes for them, tracks and autofills paperwork, and even has an ongoing reminder about when and how much payments are due. This way, as EJ jokingly says, there’s no longer an excuse for businesses not to file.

They’ve got many big plans in store for Taxumo, in keeping with their vision to empower SMEs. They want to think of Taxumo as a primary product, and just one among a roster of services they can offer. They started with Taxumo because it addresses a huge pain point, but eventually, they want to offer other services as they grow and get more in touch with SME needs.

EJ and his team are looking forward to helping many more SME clients and expanding their services to people all over the country. Right now, they’re able to offer the end-to-end process to people from Metro Manila and Laguna, while offering automatic computation of taxes and autofill of paperwork for clients in other areas of the Philippines. They’ve got a great team, with an average of 10 years’ experience and very diverse backgrounds to spearhead growth. As they keep growing and learning, they keep their vision in mind as the foundation for projects and services to come.